Weathering Spring

In 2012, Portland, Oregon saw the wettest March-May months in 72 years. But when your average Portlander argues that the rain isn’t that bad they may have a point. There were actually more drier days than 2011, it just came down harder when it did rain. The citys unpredictable, erratic spring weather made for many amazing photographic opportunities.

Weathering Spring is an artistic documentation of the Portland spring using time-lapse photography. It’s a culmination of nearly 3 months of work, over 64,000 photos and one very exciting spring season in Portland. The video provides an epic visual roller coaster ride through the city’s stormiest days, its exciting, colorful nights and back to the daytime for some chill times in the sun.

Last year I produced Portland Nights which turned out to be a success and inspired me to continue on the path of artistic time-lapse. When I set out to do another Portland time-lapse project, I wanted to add an element of production that I had never seen before, that is, making the time-lapse footage appear as if it were captured in real time with the camera being handheld or using “documentary” style cinematography. This is done by first producing a conventional static or motion controlled time-lapse clip then applying handheld movement to the clip in post using actual handheld footage and motion trackers in After Effects. This was a stylistic choice that makes for a more frantic and gritty look. It also allowed for more movement of the camera in many different directions during production which would otherwise look robotic and unnatural.

I wanted to create a more realistic portrayal of the Portland spring season by both using the “handheld” technique as well as capturing some of the most interesting weather conditions and visuals Portland has to offer, both ominous and beautiful. And I certainly had help with Hisham Dahud and Derrek Domino’s fantastic original score that provides a dramatic, psychedelic and exciting reinforcement to the imagery.